Mendon New York Saints

Greetings once again from New York. The time is going by really fast here. It is hard to believe that we have just 10 months left here. We are always very busy and have been using part of our preparation days to attend baptisms and other meeting in nearby Wards. We have mentioned that it is so amazing to live here in the "cradle of the restoration". We have made it a project to compile a small book that tells some of the history of Mendon, but more particularly about the John Young home that we live in. The book will stay in this home and will include a guest sign-in page. We already have a head start, because the last owner of this farm still lives nearby. She is Eileen Hutchinson Havens. Eileen and her husband Bob live just a quarter of a mile away. She grew up in this home and also lived here after getting married and raised her family here. Her mother, Marion kept a guest book for visitors to the John Young home. We were able to make a copy of it and it will comprise part of the new book. Some of the names in the book are: Spencer W. Kimball, Marion D. Hanks, Richard L. Evans, and maybe a hundred others. The first recorded guests were in 1920 and the original list ends in 1983. There were many church tour groups whose director signed the book for the group. There were many missionaries that also signed. We will try to have future guests add their names to it.

John and his first wife Abigail Howe Young had 11 children, Brigham was the 9th child. She passed away some time before John moved to Mendon with his new wife, Hannah. John and Hannah, built this home in about 1827. It is thought that Brigham probably helped him, since he was a master carpenter. The home was built in a "L" shape and was located on the west end of the 100 acre farm. Brigham moved to Mendon in 1829 and built a mill over the stream at the eastern end of John's farm. He built a small living quarters above the mill. Water powered the saw in the mill which helped Brigham cut lumber from which he made furniture and other things.

Sometime before 1880 the new owners of the John Young home decided to split off part of the home and move it across the street. The removed part was placed on a new foundation and became a separate home. The east part of the original home that remained was closed off. Then in about 1880 a two story addition was built onto the west end. That made it once again the bigger of the two homes. We are privileged to live in the original part of the house. There is still an old red barn on the property. A separate two car garage was added sometime later. Another old barn that was next to the red barn was disassembled and rebuilt on the Joseph Smith farm, because it was found to be of the same style as the original that was once there. The Hutchinson family owned this farm and lived in the homes for six generations. In the late 1970's some LDS members from California purchased the property, but permitted Mrs. Hutchinson to live in the home until 1983, when she died. Mrs. Eileen Hutchinson Havens, the daughter, told us that the two California men either gave or sold the property to the Church in about that year.

At the site of Brigham's mill, on the eastern end of the farm, there was a mill pond which was situated just upstream from the mill. In 1832 Brigham Young, his wife Miriam, Heber C. Kimball, John P. Greene, Israel Barlow and over 35 others were baptized in that pond during that year. John Young had visited the home town of some of the first missionaries who came to Mendon from the Columbia Pennsylvania Branch of the church, along with his sons Phineas and Joseph, and were baptized there on April 5th, 1832. Brigham was baptized in Mendon on the 15th of April 1832.

We will end this chapter now, but look for more information on the history of Mendon in the following weeks. May the Lord bless and keep you and your families and help you to better understand and appreciate the heritage that was left for us to enjoy.